Penning a memoir is no easy task. You are giving everyone an insider’s peek into your world. This is exactly what Bernice L. McFadden did with Firstborn Girls. McFadden starts her story with the horrifying car accident that she survived at just two years old. She takes us from that moment all the way up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.
What made this book so moving is how you’re traveling with McFadden through the different decades. She includes significant historical moments that were happening during that particular time period. McFadden does an excellent job of telling us about her family’s history and how they survived slavery, joined the Great Migration, and lived through many other moments in history.
Readers will find it refreshing to see who McFadden’s literary influences are and how she was a voracious reader from a very young age. When reading this book, readers will see that McFadden went through the same struggles that many African American women go through as far as trying to establish their own place in the world. Firstborn Girls is a heart-wrenching memoir that is also full of hope and redemption.
Reviewed by Radiah Hubbert
